PR: Sensaris Launches its Global “SMARTPHONES FOR AIR QUALITY” Program

June 11, 2012

Integrated solution initially targets fine particles and indoor air quality monitoring. Appcessories are designed to be compatible with both iPhone and Android platforms.

There is growing interest for air quality monitoring as the recent controversy in London or the need for Chinese cities to publish fine particles levels recently revealed. Citizens and communities are increasingly aware of the correlation between personal exposure to environmental pollution and health.
After pilot projects and deployments in 15 cities on 4 continents, Sensaris is now launching the first global network for air quality monitoring based on cloud technologies and smartphones.
Environmental data such as noise, CO2, CO, fine particles, humidity, temperature, along with positioning information is sent wirelessly to iPhones (starting this summer) or Android mobile devices. Users can choose to store data on the phone, send it to a server for real time mapping or store it locally on the Senspod’s memory card for later or periodic automated transfer. The patent pending solution will now enable citizens to monitor indoor and outdoor air quality and compare or share results via social networking applications. For smart city services, pocket sized Senspods have been used by pedestrians, mounted on vehicles (bicycles, cars) or placed on urban furniture. The scalable architecture combined with the ease of use the mobile application and web based interface ensure easy deployment.
Michael Setton, CEO indicated: “In many cases there are more sensors in a car than air quality monitoring stations in a city. After getting a boost from the Bluetooth Innovation world Cup in January, we are very excited to deploy Senspods in several new cities this summer. Our devices and software will provide citizens and communities with new means of improving air quality, and the use of social networking tools will foster exchange of ideas and solutions on a global scale. This is an important step in increasing people’s engagement to bring local solutions to this growing issue. In subway stations our sensors can be combined with LED lights to provide energy savings and environmental information to citizens. For more than 9000 metro stations worldwide, public transportation users could soon get real time indoor air quality values on their mobile phones.”

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Mobile Health Around the Globe: Zao mHealth Device Field-Tested in India and Nepal

May 14, 2012

The Health Work Collective published an article about ZAO, the all-in-one mHealth device released by Sensaris.

This interesting article explains how ZAO has been designed and tested in though conditions in Nepal and what could be its first applicartion with EHealth Points Services India, which provides families in rural villages with clean drinking water, medicines, diagnostic tools and telemedicine.

Health Work Collective is an editorially independent, moderated community for thought leaders in international healthcare. They aggregate content and provide resources about all aspects of modern medicine, providing a community where healthcare professionals can debate the latest issues and advances in their field.

Read more here.

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Fine particle measurement system compatible with mobile phones (PM)

April 23, 2012

To facilitate measurement both outdoors and indoors indoors (where we spend the majority of our time), Sensaris is releasing its Senspod EcoPM so users can now check ultrafine particle levels directly on their mobile phones.

Growing worldwide concern about PM

A growing number of city government are asked to act on improving environmental quality. For example, at the beginning of March 2012, the Hong Kong government began releasing hourly readings of ultrafine particles, as it bowed to public pressure for greater transparency about air quality.

In 2013, the monitoring of PM2.5 and Ozone will be extended to 113 cities in China.

If you’re interested in having international comparison for PM 2.5 and PM 10 in cities, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has conducted a very interesting study with a lot of data available.

Impact on health

Particles in ambient air have been associated with adverse health effects, including respiratory and cardiovascular effects. (See “Tackling the global clean air challenge report” by WHO)
Find additional information about air quality impact on health

Such Ultrafine particles can be “imported” from the outdoors but they can also be generated by combustion (cooking, heating, smoking…..) or by reactions between ozone and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
You can find more information about ultrafine particles here

A mobile sensor with a phone application

The ability to use low cost mobile phones to record the fine particle levels provides a new tool to understand adverse possible causes of high particle counts as well as monitor trends, evaluate the effectiveness of control strategies and the degree of improvement brought by new solutions.

The GPS module also enables the unit to be carried by pedestrians or mounted on vehicles in order to map out cities and help city governments to provide citizens with the means to compare areas and evaluate progress.

Go to our Products page to learn more about EcoPM.

EcoPM Sheet

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Winner for the Automotive and Entertainment category in the Bluetooth Innovation World Cup 2011 !

January 31, 2012

Yesterday was a very special day as we received in Munich an award for the Bluetooth Worldwide Innovation Cup in the category “Automotive, entertainment and other” .
This has a special meaning for us as it validates our vision to build a global network of environmental monitoring sensors for citizens. Mobile phones are personal devices but our environment is a shared responsibility and concern. The Senspod family is growing quickly and there will be exciting announcements in the near future so stay tuned.

We thank the Bluetooth SIG and the members of the jury for this recognition, and for those of you that could not attend the ceremony at ISPO, here is our presentation.

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Human centric sensing.

January 9, 2012

In the journal “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society”, you can read a fascinating article about “Human Centric Sensing”. Click on the link below to access it:

Human centric Sensing Article

The authors indicate in the abstract “The first decade of the century witnessed a proliferation of devices with sensing and communication capabilities in the possession of the average individual……Social networking platforms emerged, such as Twitter, that allow sharing information in real time. The unprecedented deployment scale of such sensors and connectivity options ushers in an era of novel data-driven applications that rely on inputs collected by networks of humans or measured by sensors acting on their behalf.”

We share the same vision and believe that people are still at the heart of the “Internet of Things”. This is why trust, privacy are key issues for deployments and sociological considerations are as important as technological ones. Sensor networks are just extensions of our senses and provide new ways to interconnect them, but what matters is what is done with the data, not how it is collected or communicated.
We are really excited about new developments and product launches in 2012…..it should be a great year and we will do everything we can to make it a good year for you as well.
Best wishes for this new and exciting journey !

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Sensaris software lands on Android Market.

December 10, 2011

After beta tests in 6 countries (out of 18 countries where Senspods are used), we are now releasing Senspod App.
Starting with EcoSense, you can now download software directly from the Android Market, install it on your Android devices and start making a difference for the environment in your city.
Simple steps:

- Scan the QR code,
- select install,
- launch the app,
- select your Senspod and enter 1111 for pairing.

Send your friends the web address to see your data live. You are done.

Current record is 1:48 (and that was even without any warm-up whatsoever).Can you top that ??

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European Cities - Best practices for clean air.

September 8, 2011

Air pollution causes nearly half a million premature deaths each year in the European Union. In busy cities, air quality is usually at its worst, with high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and ozone. The average life expectancy of people living in the EU’s most polluted areas is reduced by over two years as a consequence of this. A lot can be done at a local level to avoid these emissions.
The European City Ranking is part of the “Soot-free for the Climate!” campaign.Its goal is to demonstrate that many local solutions to improve air quality exist and to find out how cities use these solutions, if at all. This ranking mainly focuses on efforts made to reduce particulate matter (PM10) and soot, or black carbon. However most measures looked at also help reduce other air pollutants, and can therefore serve as general examples for good air quality policy.

The top 3 cities are: Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm.
Then come: Vienna, Zurich, Amsterdam, Lyon, Glasgow, Graz, Paris.

These cities get a shameful F grade: Brussels, London,Madrid, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Milan, Rome.

When will your city start using Senspods ?

For more details:

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Making the case for Parking sensors…………

August 2, 2011

In Vilnius they really take illegal parking seriously:

Watch video

After this, one can imagine that Streetline might provide a free sensor to the mayor for Christmas or better yet a position on its strategic board.

After being named IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year Streetline’s CEO Zia Yusuf announced:

“With our smart sensors, we can dramatically reduce the amount of drivers’ time looking for parking, and improve the efficiency of a city’s traffic and parking network. Smarter Cities will change how people work and live. Parking sensors are only the first step, and we look forward to working with IBM to help make cities ‘smarter’.”

This video opens up a whole range of new services !!

What is the return on investment for cities implementing parking sensor networks ?…..Since there are an increasing number of cities implementing such schemes, like Santander or Sant Cugat we will soon find out…….but it will be hard to match Lithuania’s capital.

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Reality check: Mobile Sensing Roadmap

July 31, 2011

Sometimes looking back at forecasts or roadmaps can provide valuable insights and better understanding of the present.

This document was produced by Nokia (back in 2006 !), which even though it has a rocky future ahead still sold 88 million phones in Q2 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(See Original at the bottom of this post).

We will not go into controversial debates regarding the company’s recent strategic decisions, however when looking at their forecasts quite a few developments forecasted have become a reality today…….sometimes timeline was off by a couple of years, other times things happened a bit sooner than they thought. Overall,  it seems that back in 2007 the people responsible for imagining what the mobile world would look like 5 years later had a pretty clear vision…… Let us see some predictions right on target, some futuristic and some that may take some time to become a reality.

 

 

  • Watches, toys and other small battery operated devices will be able talk to mobile phones, thanks to Nokia’s innovative Wibree technology and its incredibly small power consumption

Wibree became Bluetooth Low Energy

 

 

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  • With Smart connectivity your mobile can seamlessly switch between radio connections to give you the best quality, fastest speed and/or cheapest available connection

 

……except that with Orange I doubt it will ever be possible to get the cheapest available connection (let us not talk about speed).

 

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  • Widgets bring a wealth of new applications to get you the information you need to stay up to date with from the Internet

 

Mobile is the promised land for widgets and social widgets will     probably grow quickly as well.

 

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  • Augmented reality Devices that deliver information based on context. “Tell me what that building is”, “bring me the website I was looking at last Friday” or “find me an excellent tune for getting ready to go out” are all commands that can readily be followed

 

Layar, Metaio, TAB Worldmedia and of course Wikitude Drive are brilliant examples of the power of AR………

 

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  • Mobile marketing will expand rapidly, offering businesses a unique opportunity to market products on a one-to-one basis.

Promoted Tweets, Facebook Messages, the list is too long for this posting.

 

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  • GPS enabled social networking on your mobile will soon enable you to track down friends who are nearby

 

Google Maps Leads the Way in Connected UK Mobile App Usage in June 2011 , applications like Four Square or Tweeps around keep growing….

 

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  • Data download speeds increase to tens of Mbits per second with long-term evolution (LTE or 3.9G) cellular technologies

 

Yep, LTE is getting out there; I think telcos skipped 3.9 G and went directly to 4G…

 

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  • Camera resolutions in mobile devices will reach 10MPix, 7x optical zoom and HDTV recording capability

Close :   Samsung Galaxy II is at 8 Mpix, iPhone 4 has  HD video recording.

 

 

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  • Devices can be made of materials that disintegrate at the end of life minimizing any impact to the environment

 

Ahead of time !! We all already have seen plenty of these devices with very short lifespans !!  Quality is one of our top priorities, and no we do      not intend to provide Senspods that you can plant in the ground so they disintegrate and bloom from flower seeds contained in the protective casing .….

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  • Integrated health sensors on you and on your mobile will provide diagnosis ‘on-the-go’ and alert you to any health risks, such as an increase in blood-pressure. Your mobile will be able to detect high pollen count areas or any flu virus lurking somewhere near you

 

Sensaris products and services provide heart rate, blood pressure, glucose, temperature, blood oxygen saturation , lung capacity and a number of new applications are in the pipeline…………..At the moment we have no direct virus but stay tuned………………

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Want to get some insight for the next few years ? Start reading articles like the one on Google Think Quaterly Innovation:

 

http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/quarterly/innovation/next-gen-innovators.html

 

We are working with our partners and customers to shape what mobile sensing will look like in 2016.Contact us if you want to keep your competitive edge and be among next gen innovators.
Nokia Roadmap

 

 

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Air quality sensors on city buses.

July 1, 2011

News from the OpenSense project in Switzerland:

27.06.11 - Rather than installing stations on fixed towers, why not use mobile sensors spread out over the whole city to get better air quality measurements? OpenSense, a project run by four laboratories at EPFL and one at ETH Zurich, is studying the possibility of installing sensors on the roofs of buses and trams, thus taking advantage of already existing public transport and mobile phone networks. Testing is currently underway in Lausanne.

Measuring air quality using mobile sensors installed on buses, trams and taxis: this is the clever idea being developed in the OpenSense project. Using the data from these sensors, a person with asthma would know what time of day the pollution was at its lowest in the neighborhood, and thus pick this moment do his or her shopping, for example. Parents would know where to take their children to play on a summer day, because they would be aware of zones with low ozone concentrations…

This project, run by four laboratories at EPFL and one at ETH Zurich, is setting up a new infrastructure for measuring air quality that takes advantage of already existing networks, such as the public transport network. Mobile, secure, predictable, and spread out over a given area, buses are an ideal data collection base. The researchers thus have set themselves the tasks of designing climate and traffic-resistant sensors that can be placed on vehicles and organizing the networking of the information they collect, using mobile phones.

“The advantage of a sensor network like this is that you can collect more data in a much more evenly spread-out area than you can from the few fixed pollution measuring stations that are currently being used,” explains EPFL Professor and project leader Karl Aberer.

As a test, a box of sensors was installed on the roof of a bus that is part of the Lausanne Public Transport system and another was installed on a tram in Zurich. These devices are collecting atmospheric data, the presence and quantity of particulates and certain pollutants - ozone (O3), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitric acid (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Towards practical applications

A second important objective of the project is to better involve and inform the public about the quality of the air they’re breathing. In order to more precisely determine the best and most concrete use of the data collected, a complementary study is being done with the Nokia Research Center in Lausanne (NRCL). It could be, for example, a warning service or a smartphone application for people who are more susceptible to variations in pollution levels – children, people with asthma, the elderly, or people with allergies.

Although the idea of the project seems simple, putting it into practice involves overcoming numerous scientific and technical difficulties. “Being able to precisely locate the sensors is very important for the reliability of the data produced,” explains Alcherio Martinoli, one of the four EPFL professors involved in the project. This localization can be done using GPS technologies. For EPFL professor Boi Faltings, head of the Artifical Intelligence Laboratory, it’s also a matter of “getting the sensors to take data only where it’s really useful.”

 

News Source

Initial project presentation:
Opensense project Overview

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